Patriots can clinch AFC East with win

The NFL preaches parity and in most cases, it's not false advertising. But when it comes to the AFC East, the mantra is definitely disparity. The Patriots can clinch the division officially today — that would be with four games remaining in their season — with a win over the Dolphins in Miami.

The NFL preaches parity and in most cases, it's not false advertising. But when it comes to the AFC East, the mantra is definitely disparity.

The Patriots can clinch the division officially today — that would be with four games remaining in their season — with a win over the Dolphins in Miami.

It would be their fourth straight division championship and 10th in 12 years. The only interruptions came in 2002, when the New York Jets came out ahead in a three-way tiebreaker with the Dolphins and Patriots, and in 2008, when the Dolphins claimed the crown in a tiebreaker with New England.

“It's out there, and it's a realistic goal,” receiver Brandon Lloyd admitted, “but it comes down to how you play the game, and that's pretty much what we're focused on.”

The possibility of the Patriots clinching in South Florida was news to first-year Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, who is understandably immersed in his own work as he tries to revive a once-proud franchise that has missed the playoffs in nine of the last 10 seasons.

“Believe it or not — this is the honest-to-God truth — I didn't know that,” said Philbin, who did a year of postgrad study at Worcester Academy in 1979 and was an assistant at WPI in 1986-87. “I'm not surprised as I'm looking at what they've done the last five weeks. We're just looking to improve and play better.”

The second-place Dolphins are 5-6 and trail the Patriots by three games. They rallied from seven points down with less than six minutes to play to upend the Seattle Seahawks, 24-21, last week and halt a three-game losing streak.

That made them 3-4 in games decided by seven points or less — they've been blown out twice this year, both times on the road — and it marked the first fourth-quarter comeback of rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill's pro career.

“We thought we did some things that we haven't done here yet,” Philbin said. “This is our 11th week here together, and going into our 12th game, we've got to show a lot of improvement to beat this football team. There's no doubt about it.

“So we're not worried necessarily about (the Patriots clinching). We're worried about how well they're executing in all three phases of the game.”

The Patriots enter Sun Life Stadium, where temperatures are expected to be in the 80s, as the hottest team in football. They've won seven of eight to improve to 8-3 and are riding a five-game winning streak.

In the last four, they've outscored the opposition, 190-81, and posted a plus-13 turnover differential while Tom Brady has thrown 12 touchdowns and no interceptions.

The Dolphins are facing the eternal question to which defenses rarely get the answer they seek: Do you send more players at Brady in hopes of disrupting his rhythm, or do you drop more players into coverage in hopes of confusing him?

Kevin Coyle, who spent eight seasons coaching at Holy Cross starting in 1982, believes it has to be a bit of both.

“He's not the most mobile quarterback that we face, for sure,” Coyle said. “That's a bit of a relief after the guy last week (Seattle's Russell Wilson), to be honest with you. But he stands in there and he waits and he waits and he waits, and guys separate and get open.

“He's very patient and he's so smart. That's the thing about him. I don't think you can sit there and cover them all day long … because eventually he finds somebody open.

“We are a pressure team to a pretty high degree and we're not going to change what we do. But we're going to have to be really smart in how we do it.”

The Dolphins are tied for ninth in the league with 29 sacks. Ten players have contributed to the total with linebacker Cameron Wake leading the way with 9.5, although he has been in a slump lately.

The Dolphins, like the Jets on Thanksgiving, come in motivated by the prospect of really needing a win to remain relevant in the playoff race. Like the Patriots and their division title prospects, they're downplaying that thought.

“Obviously, we don't want to make this any bigger than what it is,” running back Reggie Bush said. “It's another football game and it's a chance for us to go to 6-6. It's not the Super Bowl but it's a big game for us, and we understand that obviously they're very good.”

A little too good for the Dolphins, an up-and-coming club that's at least a year or two away from challenging the Patriots for divisional supremacy.

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